Tension control for rigid stranders



L 19% K. c. SCHILLEBEECKX 3,543,501

TENSION CONTROL FOR RIGID STRANDERS Filed July 10, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR KONRAD C. SCHILLEBEEGKX BY WW ATTORNEYS Dec. 1,

K. c. SCHlLLEBEECKX 3,543,501

TENSION CONTROL FOR RIGID STRANDERS Filed July 10, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR KONRAD C. SOHILLEBEECKX BY flaw Wa e/M ATTORNEYS 3,543,501 TENSION CONTROL FOR RIGID STRANDERS Konrad C. Schillebeeckx, Cranston, R.I., assignor to Wanskuck Company, a corporation of Rhode Island Filed July 10, 1968, Ser. No. 743,886 Int. Cl. D01h 7/02 US. Cl. 57-59 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A cable making apparatus having a plurality of reels mounted in a frame which is revolved about an axis as a wire from each of the reels is pulled from each reel and twisted together. Each of the reels is equipped with a brake for tensioning the wire drawn therefrom with a means for adjusting the brake of each reel while it is revolving, the means being capable of adjusting all of the brakes on all of the reels in the frame simultaneously while the frame is revolving with greater tension during stopping.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A stranding machine has a frame carrying a plurality of reels from which wires are drawn and twisted together. These reels are heavy and will overrun when the frame is stopped if not prevented from doing so due to their inertia. Consequently a brake is applied to each reel which is spring loaded. The adjustment of the spring loading is by hand for each reel individually and the frame must be stopped for such adjustment to be made. Once this adjustment is made, the brake is applied with this adjusted tension throughout the stranding operation thus applying unwanted tension during running which tension is used only for stopping and without adjustment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the varying of the brake tension on a plurality of reels simultaneously on each of the reels and to adjust the brake tension while the frame in which the reels are mounted is revolving, all of which is done by a mechanical control as distinguished from manually. Further the brake tension may be varied for running and stopping conditions so that less wire tension may be used during running.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of the apparatus; FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the brake for each reel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference to the drawings shown diagrammatically a number of reels such as 10, 11, 12 and 13 that are suitably mounted in a frame 15 which can rotate in bearings 16 and 17. Wires from each of the reels are guided through apertures 18 located in a plate and thence to a buncher 19 and to a capstan 20. A drive arrangement from a motor 21 leads to the capstan 20 as shown by the dotted line 22 and also to the frame 15 to drive the same so that multiple ends of Wire that are led from the reels 10 through 13 may be twisted to the required strand.

It will be apparent that as individual wires are led through the stranding mechanism as at 18 that some tension must be applied to the reels so that they will not free run and cause bunching of the wire on the drums as the wire is let off. To accomplish this, a brake band which is diagrammed as at 25, 26, 27 and 28 on each of the reels 10 through 13 is attached to the arbor upon which the reel rotates, a typical installation of the brake band being shown in FIG. 2, which will be described in more detail below. The brake band herein shown is controlled by nited States Patent i pneumatic means in such a way as to vary the tension that is applied to the reel arbor. It should be understood, of course, that other means might be utilized to control the tension of the brake band such as for instance electrical control in the form of an electrical positioner. With the state of the art as it now exists, it is more practical to' utilize pneumatic means. Accordingly, to accomplish this end, there has been illustrated in FIG. 1 pneumatic conduits 30 that lead from each of the drums and which join together into a single conduit 31 that passes through the center of the bearing 16 that mounts the frame 15 that contains the reels. The conduit 31 is led to a threeway valve 33 which has two inputs illustrated by conduits 35 and 36 that respectively connect to pressure regulators 38, 39 that are fed from a source of air under pressure as at 40. In the embodiment disclosed the regulator 38 has a constant pressure output while regulator 39 has a variable pressure output that can be controlled by a control pin 41 that is reciprocated by a cam 43. Elfectively the cam 43 will adjust the pressure that is supplied on the downstream side of the pressure regulator 39. This in turn will control the amount of tension that the brake band applies to the arbor during the running thereof, and may be varied while the stranding is in operation. The control for the cam 43 is eflfected as follows:

A wheel 45 rides on the stranded cable and is coupled to a tachometer generator 46, the output of which is fed across a potentiometer 47 having a slider wire output 48. The voltage, accordingly, that is placed across the potentiometer 47 will be proportional to the speed of the stranded wire as it comes from the machine. It is important, however, to have some aflixed reference control for the amount of tension that is applied and to do this a reference potentiometer 50 is fed by a controlled voltage source diagrammed as a battery 51 and its slider wire output 52 is fed to a common point 55 that is also fed by the slider wire output 48. So that there will be a proper feedback loop for the system, a third potentiometer 57 is provided with a source of voltage indicated as a battery 58 and this voltage which is represented at the output of slider wire 59 is also fed to the common point 55. The position of the slider wire at 59 is controlled by a servo motor generally indicated at 60 and as shown by the dotted line 61, thus completing the feedback loop. The output of this network which is represented by the common point 55 and the common reference point 62 is fed to a differential relay 65 which has an armature contactor 66 and a pair of contacts 67 and 68. The contacts 67 and 68 lead respectively to the coils 70 and 71 of the servo motor 60 and the common juncture point of the coils 70 and 71 lead to terminal of a single phase source of AC, the other terminal 74 of which leads to the reed contactor 6'6. Inasmuch as a single phase source of supply is utilized, a phase shifting network generally indicated 72 is connected across the forward and reverse coil 70 and 71 of the servo motor 60 as well known to those skilled in the art. In operation, a fixed voltage is determined by the operator across the potentiometer 50 which is done by selecting a position for the slider arm 52 thereof. The potentiometer 57 will have its position established by the shaft position of the servo motor 60* and it will be noted that this voltage has been diagrammed as a bucking voltage to the voltage output from the potentiometer 50. An at rest position, accordingly, would be where the voltage at the sliders 52 and 59 are equal and opposite. Additionally, the position of the slider arm 48 that is fed with the voltage output of the tachometer generator 46 may be selected by the operator so that a given percentage of the output voltage may be utilized in the network, and therefore, the speed of the tachometer generator will have at least some effect upon the voltage appearing at the point 55. Since the apparatus is shown at rest the operator will first change the three-way valve 33 so that the conduits 36 and 31 are in communication, and this releases the stopping pressure from conduit 35 that has been applied to the brake bands and will now apply pressure that is the output of the pressure regulator 39. As the speed of the apparatus builds up, the tachometer generator will, of course, have more and more output and this will be sufficient to overcome the settings of the balance potentiometers 50 and 57 and cause the differential relay 65 to operate and close the contact establishing rotation for the servo motor 60 in the direction such that as the cam 43 is rotated, more air pressure will be applied to the air chamber 87 with less braking effect on drum 25. Conversely as the tachometer generator slows down, the reverse will take place causing less pressure to be applied at the output of the regulator 39 with a reverse rotation of the servo motor 60. The feedback network that is established by the potentiometer 57 will always insure that the position reached by the servo motor will be balanced by the net output voltage of the other two networks from the potentiometers 47 and 50.

Should it be desired to stop the apparatus, the threeway valve may be moved so that communication is had between the conduits 35 and 31 in an appropriate time in the stopping cycle that is near the end thereof, and a controlled pressure sufiicient for complete stopping of the apparatus will be applied to the brake drums bringing the machine and all of the reels to a complete rotative halt. In FIG. 2 one of the reels shows its brake drum as provided with a brake band 80 loaded at one end by spring 81 and loaded at its other end by springs 82, 83 abutting screw plug 83' and wall 84 and double headed pistons 85, 86 which heads are slidable in cylinder 87 and have rod 88 connected to the brake band 80. The air conduit opens into this cylinder 87 and as air pressure is increased the springs 82, 83 are compressed relieving the brake band in proportion to the air pressure applied.

The motor 21 is an electric motor and when the switch is thrown to start this motor, the valve 33- which may be a solenoid valve which has a timed delay switch connected to it, is in the position to admit air pressure from the pressure regulator 39 which is a pressure required for the running tension.

When the switch which controls the motor 21 is pushed to stop the machine, the solenoid valve 33 is switched or operable to throw a valve to connect the pressure regulator supply with the fluid air conduit which applies a lower pressure through the air conduit so that the springs 82, 83 on the brake will act to supply a greater braking effect to prevent overrun of the wire reels and the machine 4 comes to a stop in a few seconds. The switch is this solenoid valve is a timed delay switch which is usually set so that after it is on for 20 seconds it will then switch back to connecting the air supply 36 to the machine which is for the running tension.

However, even if the timed delay switch is not used and the greater pressure is applied on the brake, such as for stopping, when the machine is started up the pressure will build up much faster than the accelerating rotation of the frame when the solenoid valve is switched.

I claim:

1. In a rigid strander, a frame, means including bearings for revolvably mounting said frame, a plurality of reels rotatably mounted in said frame, a plurality of brake means each attached to each reel, each of said brake means including first means for applying a preset braking force to each reel and second means for relieving the braking force applied by the first means, sensing means for detecting the exit speed of cable from the strander, said second means including said sensing means whereby said sensing means adjusts the braking force of each brake means in response to cable speed.

2. In a rigid strander as in claim 1 wherein a third override means is connected to a switch in circuit with the second means operation of said switch connecting the third means to the brake means.

3. In a rigid strander as in claim 1 wherein the brake means comprises a plurality of drums each mounted for rotation with each reel, a band engaging each drum and being held thereagainst by a resilient means, said band coupled to said second means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,464,469 3/ 1949 Tremolada 188151 2,499,246 2/1950 Harmon 57-59 XR 2,800,205 7/1957 Schneider 188151 XR 3,123,968 3/1964 Flanigan 5762 3,271,942 9/1966 Grifiin 57-58.32 3,374,810 3/1968 Lemaire 57-59 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 723,566 4/1932 France.

885,967 6/1953 Germany, 1,118,937 6/1956 France.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Primary Examiner W. H. SCHROEDER, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 242156.2 

